Not quite WWdN 2: Electric Boogaloo, but rebuilt and restored from the old WWdN files. Current blog entries are at wilwheaton.typepad.com

April 30, 2003

That name again is Mr. Plow!

Man, my life is real boring right now.

There hasn't been anything to blog about: no auditions (nothing for months, really. Maybe I really am finished.), nothing majorly exciting on the homefront besides the new dog (who is currently known as "Riley." It's stuck around for three days, longer than any other name, though I am still holding out for "Mr. Plow.")

Oh, and though I took two very bad beats when we played poker (effing Cal rivered quad Kings TWICE against my straight, and again against my set of aces), I walked with about 104 bucks on a 40 dollar buy.

April 26, 2003

Aces full of nines

I'm playing poker tonight.

I can't wait. Man, I love to play poker. Gimmie a game of pot-limit hold em, a hundred bucks, and I couldn't be happier. I'm about two-thirds finished with Jim McManus' Positively Fifth Street right now, and I'm loving it.

Anne and I watched the DVD of Jackass last night . . . holy shit. Some of it was really stupid, like watching a bunch of stupid stoners do stupid stoner things . . . but parts of it -- Knoxville in old man makeup shoplifting, Wee Man getting chased by Preston all over Tokyo, making Bam's mom say "fuck" -- was insanely funny. And Rip Taylor! Damn.

April 24, 2003

Outrage Overload (one in a continuing series)

WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) - Now that the campaign to topple Saddam Hussein appears to be over, even U.S. President George W. Bush admits he is a fan of the public relations style of former Iraqi information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf.

"He's my man, he was great," Bush enthused in an interview with NBC's Tom Brokaw on Thursday. "Somebody accused us of hiring him and putting him there. He was a classic."

What?

He's my man?

HE'S MY MAN?!

HE IS THE ENEMY, MR. BUSH!

You know who Bush's MAN should have been? Every American soldier who was in Iraq fighting his immoral, illegal, and totally unnecessary war. Every child who is without a father or mother, every husband or wife, son or daughter who isn't ever coming home . . . they are "your man," Mr. Bush.

Bill Junior was a DAREDEVIL! Just like his old man!

"Look at me! Look at me!"

I hear that I'm gonna be all over The Screen Savers today: Kevin Rose is wearing a spiffy new WWdN T-shirt that I gave him when I was there last week, and Sarah Lane is going to be talking about this lame website in her Blog Report. (Thanks to WWdN reader Mary for the head's up on that!)

So I got to thinking . . . if TechTV takes a screenshot of my site to put on the air, maybe I should do something stupid like this. It's the onilne equivalent of jumping up and down and shouting "GO KENTUCKY!" in the background while some poor reporter tries to keep it together.

Buddah Rhubarb Butter

When I started writing Just A Geek back in September or October of last year, I never thought that it would turn into a real book. My plan, honestly, was just to collect some weblog entries, write an introduction, and present it as an off-line version of WWdN.

But the more I wrote, the more I saw a story emerge. It was the story of these two people, who I'll call Real LIfe Wil and TVsWilWheaton, and how they hated each other, but couldn't exist without the other. When one of them was happy, the other one usually wasn't: TVsWilWheaton wanted fame and fortune, and needed to prove to his detractors that he wasn't just a long-forgotten flavor of the month. Real Life Wil hated the spotlight, hated that he was so addicted to the praise and attention of anyone who would give it, and just wanted to be with his wife and stepkids. The problem was, Real Life Wil couldn't be happy unless TVsWilWheaton was satisfied. Just A Geek is about how I got these two characters in balance, and more-or-less put TVsWilWheaton on a Bus to Beelzebub, so Real Life Wil can listen to Sugar Free Jazz.

When I started writing it, it was easy. The stories connected together in a logical way, and I discovered lots of stuff about myself as I put them together.

Somewhere along the line, though, I realized the magnitude of what I was doing, and I panicked. After finishing the first draft, I saw stuff I didn't like, and when I tried to rewrite it, I totally lost my focus. I also lost an editor, my muse, and began to question whether it was even worth finishing. I didn't work on it for over a month, and seriously thought about giving up on the project.

See, I'm terrified. One thing TVsWilWheaton and Real Life Wil agree on is, we don't like to do things that suck. We're both perfectionists, and as much as we shouldn't, we care what other people think of our endeavors.

If a movie sucks (Book of Days, for example, or Python) there are lots of things to blame it on: weak script, bad editing, lazy actors . . . and I can usually find something about my work that I like. But if this book sucks, if people just hate it . . . they are pretty much hating me, because it's just me between those covers, you know?

Somehow, I've managed to stick with it, and I'm working on the final draft now . . . but I haven't been able to sleep much recently, and I am filled with self-doubt. I'm too far along to give up, though, so I will keep at it.

My friend Roger once told me that if I ever decided to become a film maker, I'd spend ten years on a project, and never release it, because I'm such a perfectionist. I think he was on to something.

April 21, 2003

The Sound of Silence

Anne's friend and her awesome kids have returned home, we're back to cooking for four instead of seven (I have no idea how you Mormons do it!) and our house is once again silent, except for the jingle of Ferris's collar, and the hum of all my computer fans.

We had such a great time while they were here: we went to Disneyland on Thursday, California Adventure on Friday (Huge, huge, huge thank you's go out to Eric, who signed our friends in both days, and Tom, who signed Ryan and Nolan in on Friday).

The kids hadn't ever been to Disneyland before. The best part of the experience for me was watching their faces on The Haunted Mansion, or the Pirates of the Caribbean. I recalled how magical those rides were to me when I was a kid, and seeing the excitement and wonder play across their faces took me back to a time when pirates chased wenches, not plates of food.

April 20, 2003

Careful with that revolution, Eugene.

April 16, 2003

Meet me at The Stick

So that annoying splash screen is going to stick around until the end of the week . . . because I think it looks pretty cool.

Or maybe I'll take it down right now.

The e-mail consensus is that I look angry . . . which is kind of a drag, because I thought I looked tough.

Grr!! Check me out! I'm tough! Yeah! Tough! Grrr!!

Does anyone buy that?

Didn't think so.

Today, I shot an interview for this thing that's going to be on ABC during May Sweeps, called "Our Favorite Stars: Then And Now."

I guess I'm one of their favorite stars, or something. It's pretty cool. :) I got to talk about WWdN, recall some memories about Stand By Me and Star Trek, and talk about my books. We shot it at the ACME Comedy Theatre, which is cool, because ACME will get some national TV exposure out of it.

If anyone saw me on TechTV'sThe Screen Savers yesterday, LOSING in the Great PC race, here's what happened: Roger and I planned out how we were going to assemble the machine, and, on a scale of 1 to awesome, everything went totally great . . . except we both forgot that the P4 needed power.

Yeah, it's been awhile since I put together a machine.

But you know what? It's really easy. If I can do it, anyone can do it.

Heh. "Do it." Cool.

Chris DiBona also did a review of Red Hat 9 that you may find useful. I haven't gone to 9, yet. I'm still 8.0 with about a thousand apt-rpm additions. I'm terrified that upgrading to 9 will break my box . . . so I'll upgrade the machine Anne and the kids use first. ;)

Anne's friend Ashley is in town for the rest of the week with her insanely cool kids. We're going to be doing the Los Angeles tourist thing until Sunday, so blogging will be pretty light, if at all.

Several people have asked what happened to comments. Sadly, they've been disabled until I can figure out a way to ensure that people can act like mature adults, and not mouth-breathing idiots. Several readers have chosen to join the Soapbox community, and there's cool commenting going on in there.

How about a Thought For Today?

"Do what thy manhood bids thee do, from none but self expect applause; He noblest lives and noblest dies who makes and keeps his self-made laws."

Separated At Birth?

Everybody has something to hide except me and 50,000 monkeys.

"I don't have a problem with (government surveillance). I don't have anything to hide," Turner said. "I wish there was more government monitoring. I want to know if somebody on my block is reading a book on how to build a bomb or if there is anyone reading 'Catcher in the Rye.' They say there's a link between that book and many serial killers."

Hey, I read and enjoyed "Catcher in the Rye." I encouraged my stepson to read "Catcher in the Rye," and several of his friends also read it. Reading books is dangerous! Reading makes people think! Serial killers don't kill people! Books kill people!

So I think you should do your civic duty, and report us to the FBI because . . . well, we might be up to something you don't like. Something dangerous like reading a book. Maybe not now, but maybe sometime in the future, or maybe not at all.

But you'd better take pre-emptive action, because that is the American way.

April 11, 2003

Extra Points

Last week, Forbes.com went to the trouble of rating the top celebrity blogs. The winner? "Stand by Me" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" alum Wil Wheaton. He writes every day at WilWheaton.net, and is impressively coherent, taking more than a few self-deprecating shots at himself.

Of course, it's interesting to note that the best-rated celebrity blogger isn't that much of a celebrity. But he gets extra points in my book for his online gift shop, where you can buy a "Wil Wheaton Dot Net" thong. Remember: There are all kinds of ways to express yourself.

Heh. I'm working my way up to that "B" list, slowly but surely.

Speaking of the "B" list, you know that shitty looking movie "The Core?"

Well, why not take the thirteen bucks you'd spend at the movies, and ownthe shitty-looking movie they ripped off? As an added bonus, you get to see me die, engulfed in a flood of molten lava.

Come on, you know you want to see the movie described as "Absolute junk, one of the worst films I have seen. You will be doing well just to stay awake for the duration. "

April 10, 2003

Population +1

Our own Megan Morrone gave birth to Annabella Wells Morrone at 8:47 p.m. last Monday. In addition to a full head of brown hair, Annabella was 8 pounds, 3 ounces, and 19 inches long. Mother Megan feels great, and is quite possibly the proudest mother in the world. Send Megan an email, or if you prefer snail mail, here's the address:

Megan Morrone

c/o TechTV

650 Townsend, Suite 500

San Francisco, California 94103

I know that Megan is going to be a great mom, because she likes monkeys even more than I do.

Congratulations, Megan! You'll be enjoying a full night's sleep . . . before the end of the year. ;)

Also, my very good friend, fellow actor, and former room mate, Chris Hardwick, has started up his very own website. He promised to buy me a new car if I sent him 15,000 visitors. So get to work, and I'll give you a ride.*

Go, Daddy-O

Home Again

I am back from my vacation. Spent about 30 hours in Las Vegas, where I won 41 dollars, paid way too much for a mediocre meal, and saw "O," which is breathtaking. I highly reccommend it.

After Vegas, Anne and I flew home, unpacked our bags, loaded the car, and drove to Lake Tahoe with the kids and Ferris. The drive was great: Anne and I listened to 80s CDs that we made, and the kids watched DVDs on my iBook. The eight hour drive raced by.

While we were up there, over two feet of snow fell, and the temperature only got over 33 once! It was awesome. We went sledding (tubing blows doors on regular sleds), introduced Ferris to the concept of bounding through chest-deep snow drifts, and just enjoyed being away from that pesky Real World.